Week 4

Sometimes the list of Things To Do can seem overwhelming. We've learned it's best to concentrate on little things and tackle each job bit by bit. Michael did an amazing job this week clearing out all the debri. He had some help too- our friend Joe came out to help load a 36 ft UHaul truck. Thanks Joe! I wish Michael would have taken photos how much trash they got rid of but he was very, very focused.

This is just to prove I DO work. Sometimes.

BATHROOM

The bathroom drywall is up. The next step is to have the walls mudded and finished (by a pro). Michael hates that part of drywalling.

The wall pictured below will have the vanity and mirror. In the corner, shelves will be added in that cubby hole.

After giving the existing bathtub a good scrub, it was good enough to keep and we saved money by not replacing it. After the walls are finished, all the bathroom needs is primer, paint, a vinyl floor, a toilet, and some minor hardware.

LIVING ROOM

The walls are coming down! The left side of the room will be exposed brick. The plaster on this wall was bad and had to come down anyway. The original plan was to drywall it but plans changed. Over the years, old houses can lose their character as they get updated with new moldings, drywall, etc if the renovator doesn't keep with the orginal look. By exposing brick and refinishing the floors, we are giving the apartment back some of its original character.

Every time we discover something good with the property, it feels like a reward or a prize for our efforts. Colby, the expert guru in rehabbing old houses, was demonstrating a power sander on the wood floor and uncovered GOLD (in our eyes anyway). We have heard about the old pine wood in these houses but have never actually seen them, certainly NOT in our house until yesterday. The wood floors are going to be sanded and given a clear coat of polyurthane. I know they will look gorgeous! Formerly known as the Trash Room, the first bedroom is now clear and ready to be wallpaper-stripped (Ugh!) and staples taken out of the floor.
I finally got to take a good look at the view from this bedroom- a huge, three-story, beautiful house right in front of our house. You can't really see the details in this picture but it has a slate roof and red and green detailing everywhere. As far as I know, an older couple lives here. That's it for a 4600 sq ft house! For now the focus is on finishing stripping wall paper, taking down a couple more plaster walls, putting up drywall in the kitchen, and tackling the first bedroom.

Fingers crossed, we will be done by the end of March.....

Demo

Demo started on the 2nd of FEB. here are the latest pics except for the one of the bathroom below. I'll have to post a more updated photo later. The goal is to have this room functioning this weekend.

The living area 2 weeks ago. The wall was taken down between the two rooms.

The living room now. It is now big enough for a living room and a dinning table.

The kitchen after it was gutted. Michael put in recessed lighting too.

The Kitchen as of Thursday, 2/19/09. The vents were rerouted into the attic. We still need to expose the brick chimney pictured- we are also considering exposing brick on the window wall.

PROJECTS

Get rid of the debri...

Finish scraping old wallpaper off the plaster walls... so tedious @#!%#


Expose some more brick walls in the bedrooms, finish scraping wallpaper....

Expose more brick...

Keep Kobi happy-
Kobi, making herself at home, while she's on guard duty of course

The Beginning!

Finally after months of waiting,

we got our duplex!

We are sooo excited!!!!

The first time we visited this place I was excited about it even though we saw the worst part, the second floor. We didnt get to see the first floor because the tenant downstairs was asleep and didnt know about the visit. It took a second trip for M to get excited about it. That's when we saw how different the first floor was. It had so much more character and was in a lot better shape.

I'll post pics as we progress through the rehab. The 2nd floor is already under rehab now. Here are the BEFORE pics for the top floor. (i'll post more pics later of the outside, neighborhood, etc.)

bathroom

entrance room

kitchen

area opposite of the kitchen

This doorway leads to the next 'living area'. The other door in the picture is the furnace room. The wall pictured here is coming down to make a big living area...

another room ajoining the kitchen, leading to the bedrooms. These 'living areas' are really small and in my mind, a waste of space!

1st bedroom- in the very front of the house. its pretty big- 15 x 14

1st bedroom's fireplace- no longer working (ornamental)

2nd bedroom - 15 x 12

See the hole in the door? Its called a 'cat-hole'- for cats to walk through! And the little windows above the doors are common in houses of this era- they were proped open to improve air circulation.

Last but not least, the hidden staircase. The house used to be a one story.